1. Field of the Invention
The present invention relates to a disk player equipped with a disk changer, and more particularly to a disk player capable of exchanging disks while another disk is being played.
2. Related Background Art
Among conventional disk players equipped with a disk changer, there is a disk player of the type that a disk to be played is selected from a magazine loaded in the player and accommodating a number of disks.
In replacing a disk in the magazine of such a disk player by a new disk, the magazine is once pulled out of the player and the disk in the magazine is replaced by the new one. However, disks are not allowed to be exchanged while one disk is being played, in order to prevent a new disk from being inserted inadvertently into the empty space of the disk now being played.
To solve this problem, the assignee of this application filed Japanese Patent Laid-open application No.3-147563 which proposes a disk player capable of exchanging disks while another disk is being played. According to this disk player, each disk placed on its carrier is inserted in a stocker fixedly mounted on the disk player, and a slider tray is provided for each carrier. In exchanging disks, the carrier together with the slider tray is pulled out of the disk player. In playing a disk, the carrier which places the disk thereon is pulled out of the stocker and moved downward onto a playing unit.
This player is associated, however, with some problems that the number of slider trays used for pulling out the carriers becomes large and that a transport mechanism for transporting a disk to the playing unit becomes complicated with a number of components. Furthermore, since each slider tray is required to extend out of the housing of the disk player, a large area of the front panel of the disk player is occupied because the extension of all slider trays. This results in restrictions in designing a large display area on the front panel.